Last year PR Newswire discovered news releases with a multi-media element have 77% more views and twice the “shelf-life” as their text-only counterparts. The hottest app right now is the photo sharing app, Instagram. The fastest growing social media site this year is a photo pin board, Pinterest. Are you paying attention? When you tell your story with an image people pay attention and then share.
Here are five ways you can ensure your message has the pop to get noticed:
1. Take a picture
Whether it’s with a professional photo director giving your product its best light, or a quick snapshot on your phone using Instagram, a picture can turn 140 characters into 1,140. Capture a picture of your product in use, or demonstrate your key messages in pictures to make them more compelling.
By including this picture in a release, the Louisiana SPCA was able to make their post on BestofNewOrleans.com more impactful to readers.
2. Buy a stock photo or illustration
Websites like Getty Images, iStockphoto and Shutterstock allow you to browse thousands of professional photos, illustrations and videos available for purchase. For a small fee, you could skip the coordination of creating original images and buy the perfect piece for your message.
Writing a release or blog post about the Olympics this summer? The possibilities are endless on stock photo websites. http://www.istockphoto.com
3. Turn your words into an image
These creations litter blog posts, Pinterest boards, and Facebook walls. You can use sites like someecards.com, which lets you add your own message to a classic character drawing to bring it to life. Make a press release quote stand out as an image of white words on a black background. Or create a word cloud with sites like worditout.com to convey the importance of each word in your message.
Mike Heid, Senior Copywriter at Peter Mayer, used Someecards to make this post more memorable!
4. Make a graph
It’s as simple as plug and play in an Excel document. Have impressive stats spelled out in your news release? Make them easy to see in a pie chart or line graph. Graphs help ensure the impactful numbers you’ve listed are memorable.
Tim Surette used pie charts in his article: Learning About Pilot Season Through Pie Charts to raise questions about this season’s newest shows.
5. Infographic
The possibilities are endless with this clever way to deliver information. Unlike a graph, infographics include illustrations, directional cues, and creative uses of numbers. Infographics are great for making information more visually compelling. The best work is done professionally, but if that’s not in the budget, sites like infogr.am and easel.ly can help you build one.
Peter Mayer Advertising’s Associate Creative Director, Tom Futrell, created this infographic for Louisiana Economic Development to illustrate Louisiana’s growth in jobs.
What visual cues make a message memorable for you? Tell us on Facebook.